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By KELIN DILLON

On Thursday, Aug. 10, Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) released the nation’s 2022 Poverty Measurement Estimates, which was compiled with information from the National Survey of Household Income and Expenses (ENIGH).

The newly public data revealed that the actual number of Mexicans living in poverty decreased from ​​55.7 million to 46.8 million people between 2020 and 2022, while the number living in extreme poverty decreased from 10.8 million to 9.1 million people.

This represents a respective decrease of 7.6 percent and 3.7 percent from 2020 to 2022, said Coneval.

The Mexican states with the highest poverty level registered as Chiapas with 65.7 percent, Guerrero with 60.4 percent and Oaxaca with 58.4 percent, while the states with the lowest poverty level are Baja California Sur with 13.3 percent, Baja California with 13.4 percent and Nuevo León with 16 percent.

However, while poverty and extreme poverty may have decreased, the number of Mexicans vulnerable due to social deprivations reportedly increased from 23.7 to 29.4 percent in the same time period.

Social deprivations like healthcare and public education marked the most significant increases, with health service deficiencies increasing from 28.2 to 39.1 percent and the education gap growing from 19 to 19.4 percent between 2020 and 2022.

According to Coneval, expanding social programs and improving public transfers is critical to addressing poverty in Mexico at its roots, as well as paying special attention to those living in extreme poverty.

Likewise, the council suggested the development of a more robust public healthcare system so that Mexicans living in poverty can be guaranteed a standard of care and access to address their health issues.